4 and 20
by laurenwrites
Summary: "To me, this is just another twenty-four hours like any other." Or is it? / Four years of high school, four Valentine's Days. Bade.


**Because I love Valentine's Day and I love Bade and I'm a sap.**

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4 and 20

_freshman_

"Hi, Babe."

The words fumble nervously from Beck's lips, but it's (slightly) excusable. Four months after officially asking Jade West to be his girlfriend, he's finally started using the typical pet name. While he feels stupid—like he's trying to act older than they actually are—Jade seems to like the officiality of it all. She _is_ his babe, and, dammit, everyone had better know it.

"Hey," she mutters, taking his offered hand to walk with him out to the Asphalt Cafe.

"How's your day been?" He asks as they approach their usual lunch table.

"Stupid. My Intro to Theater class is completely pointless. I mean, we're in the second semester of the school year already and these idiots still can't go off-book a week after getting their scripts."

"Not everyone's as good of an actress, you know," he points out, hoping that the compliment built into his statement will override the fact that he's (barely) disagreeing with her.

"I know," the fifteen-year-old mumbles. "They had just better have their stuff together by Thursday, because I refuse to get less than a 100 on this assignment."

Beck perks up at the date. "Speaking of, uh…Thursday…" He begins, hoping she'll catch on.

She doesn't, but she does give him a eyebrow raise that pushes him to continue.

"Well," he gulps, "it's the fourteenth."

Now her eyebrows furrow. "Yeah," she marvels sarcastically, "and today's the twelfth… what's your point?"

His palms are sweating. Such a freshman.

He doesn't even _like_ Valentine's Day. Well, he's never had a reason to anyways. Why is he embarrassing himself over a day he doesn't care that much about? It's too late now, though.

"It's… Valentine's Day."

Jade rolls her eyes. "Oh, _god_. Don't tell me you're one of those morons who actually buys into that sad excuse of a holiday," she moans, her rant only beginning. "Twenty-four hours of the hearts and chocolates and flowers and pink and _ugh_—excuse me while I vomit."

He's relieved, to be honest. This is only less work for him, after all, and nothing will be awkward when they don't bring each other gifts on Thursday. Maybe, just maybe, he'd had a tiny sliver of hope that he might have a reason to celebrate the day for the first time in his life.

"Oh, good. Yeah, I hate it too."

But he's dating Jade West, and that sliver never even had a chance.

He's doing something right, though, because that Thursday when he pulls a pair of nice, sharp scissors with deep purple handles out of his backpack (without even wrapping them or saying the words "Happy Valentine's Day" to her), he swears she sees her smile.

They both still hate it, of course.

.

_sophomore_

"Yeah, that sounds good," Tori says as she walks through the doors into the Hollywood Arts hallway.

"Okay," Andre replies, turning to face her, Cat, and Robbie, "so Nozu for lunch it is."

"Don't forget to ask Beck and Jade!" The bubbly redhead adds.

"Yeah," Robbie agrees as they walk over to the lockers, "where are—_Oh_."

In true Beck-and-Jade fashion, he's pressed up against the lockers as he holds her tightly to his body. His arms are both wrapped around her waist, hers on his face and hair. Just by looking at them it's clear that a fire alarm could probably go off and neither one of them would notice.

"I guess we can excuse it today," Andre offers.

"Of course we can!" Cat declares. "It's Valentine's Day… twenty four whole hours where you're supposed to kiss!"

"Not like we don't see this every _other_ day," Tori mutters.

Before anyone can stop her, Cat is already approaching the couple. "Happy Valentine's Day!" She exclaims excitedly, causing Beck and Jade to pull away from each other just slightly. They give each other the typical _I'm-confused-are-you?_ look, much to Cat's disappointment.

"It's Valentine's Day?" Jade asks, trying to get her balance back from having had been so deep into their kiss.

"You guys seriously didn't know?" Andre questions.

Beck shrugs his shoulder. "We don't really care."

Despite how in love they are, neither of them is at the point in their relationship where they feel comfortable enough to admit the fact that they are secretly happy about having a valentine.

Maybe one day.

.

_junior_

When he passes her in the hallway, he does his best to avoid eye contact.

She's doing the same.

He thought that maybe after spending four hours writing the perfect letter, he'd have the confidence to actually _give it_ to her.

It's not that he's afraid to approach her; he's never been afraid of her in his life.

He's afraid that the words on the paper will hurt her… that the words "I miss you" and "I love you" will seem ingenuine coming from a guy who didn't even open the damn door to go after her.

This is their first Valentine's Day apart, and it's obvious to everyone that both of them are completely miserable.

Maybe they weren't happy with their relationship three days ago, but it's sure as hell safe to say that they're a lot less happy with it today.

He doesn't feel like he deserves to give it to her, so he doesn't.

For the next nine months he'll wonder what would have happened had he just slipped it in her locker.

.

_senior_

"Happy _Me _Day, everyone! Get it? Happy _Valentine_'s Day?!"

Every student in Sikowitz's class—except for Robbie, of course—clearly expresses their annoyance at the redhead's giggly announcement she makes upon entering the room.

Beck's arm is looped around his girlfriend's smaller frame, his fingers locked with hers as she rests her head on his shoulder.

"Ah," their teacher booms, stepping onto the stage. "Cat does bring up an important point. Today is a day for _love_! What a wonderful treat! And," he continues, "in honor of this wonderful holiday, I say we find out if anyone has any special plans to celebrate!"

Jade rolls her eyes, fully aware of Sikowitz's next words.

"Beck! Jade!" Yep, there it is. "How are the two of you spending your Valentine's Day?"

The entire class turns towards the couple. "We, uh…" Beck starts. "We don't really do Valentine's Day."

"What?"

"They never have," Andre pipes in. "They think it's stupid."

The teacher's jaw drops open. "That's nonsense! It's a whole day dedicated to loving each other!"

"I love Jade every day," Beck replies. "To me, this is just another twenty-four hours like any other."

"Jade, that doesn't bother you?" Sikowitz challenges. "Don't you want the boy to at least get you a card and flowers or something?"

"I'd cut them up and use the stems to choke him," is her prompt reply, earning a wince from almost everyone in the class save for her boyfriend.

The subject passes, and soon enough the bell releases everyone to lunch.

"You guys ready for Festus's Valentine's Day Special?" Robbie asks.

"Actually, Jade and I are just gonna grab some coffee and work on a project," Beck answers. "We'll see you guys later."

Their friends aren't too surprised (Beck and Jade have always been more exclusive anyways), and the couple is happy to escape to back inside the school.

Beck leads his girlfriend to the blackbox theater, causing Jade's "where are we going?" question to be answered with a simple,

"I told you I had a surprise for you."

As soon as they're inside and have double-checked that the doors are locked (but they don't really have anything to worry about because Beck had cleared it with Sikowitz), Jade whips around to face her boyfriend and immediately crashes her lips to his. His hands find their place on her hips as he feels her matching smile against his mouth.

"Happy Valentine's Day," he breathes through his grin, pulling her back into another kiss. When they break apart the next time, he hears the words that she would kill him for ever repeating to anyone else.

"Happy Valentine's Day."

Beck cups her cheeks in his palms and plants another kiss perfectly on her lips. "I love you, Jade West."

She's wearing a smile that only he can bring out of her as she follows him over to the stage floor, where he has a blanket set in the middle with an ice cooler holding their lunches.

"How did I manage to fall for such a sappy loser?" Jade asks as they sit down together.

"Hey," he defends, pecking her lips again, "I'm not the one who secretly likes Valentine's Day."

"You like it too!"

"Yeah, but I wouldn't mind telling the whole _school_ that we spend the entire day kissing and saying we love each other."

"And then it would be _your_ fault for people thinking that we're a cheesy, romantic, normal high school couple. Which we're not."

"Well," he reasons, leaning in to kiss her again, "I guess we'll see about that when we open our presents."

After getting two canned lemonades—_okay, so they're a little sentimental_—out of the ice cooler and handing one to Jade, he offers a toast.

"To the girl I love, on the most romantic day of the year."

Jade rolls her eyes, but she's still smiling when they press their lips together before pulling back to take a sip of the drink.

"Let's do gifts," she demands impatiently, grabbing her Gears of War bag that's lying on the floor. He agrees, and pulls hers out of his backpack to hide it behind his back. "Ready?" She asks, waiting for his confirmation. "I'm going first."

"Perfect."

Since wrapping their presents would have been _too_ over-the-top-romantic (as if nothing else about this situation is already), they'd decided to give their gifts as is.

Next thing Beck knows, he's holding two large bottles of shampoo and conditioner in his hands. They're not just any hair products, though; they're the expensive ones he's been dying to try (and incessantly talking about) for months.

"You actually listen when I talk about my hair?"

"As painful as it was, I had to think of _something_ to get you—and you haven't shut up about those for a while."

He drops he bottles and leans over her to kiss her again. "You," he says between kisses, "are the best girlfriend I could have ever asked for."

Beck knows that—on any other day—there's no way she'd let him get away with saying something as romantic as the words that had just come out of his mouth; it's for that exact reason that he's taking full advantage of this day.

"I know," she replies. "Your turn."

"Okay," he says, pulling a little box out from behind his back. When she pulls the top off of the white cardboard square, she sees a ring. It's the one she'd pointed out at the store a few weeks ago; the one with the silver snake that wraps around almost her whole index finger. Always a sucker for new hand jewelry, Jade slips the ring on and smiles up at her boyfriend.

"Thank you," she says, taking his free hand and squeezing it.

"Oh, I have one more," Beck admits. "It's just a little thing—and I even took it out of the box for you already."

How he's not shaking when he pulls the second piece of jewelry out of the pocket in his bad will forever be a mystery to him, but he's nervous as hell when he opens his hand to reveal the silver band with a black diamond in his palm.

Jade freezes upon seeing the second ring. "Beck, I—"

"Just," he interrupts, "hear me out." Her eyes are locked on his as she waits for him to explain just when it was that he'd lost his mind.

"I've been in love with you for a long time. Four years—which is longer than the amount of time a lot of people date before getting married. But I don't want to marry you because I've been with you for four years… I want to marry you because I want to be with you for a lot more."

Jade is still in shock. "Beck… People…don't do this," she reasons, trying to gently knock some sense into him. "People don't get…_engaged_ in high school… It's just not… nor-_mal_." Her voice falls in the second syllable of her word as she sees the smile appear on his face.

In that instant, she knows. She looks into his eyes and she realizes that that's why she loves him. That's why she loves their relationship.

In fact, she sort of might even love the idea of marrying him.

"Okay," she says, the word slipping out of her lips before she can think twice. "Yes."

Beck is grinning from ear to ear as he slides the ring onto her finger.

"Wait," she says, grabbing his wrist. "You're proposing on _Valentine's Day_?"

"I never said I wasn't cheesy and romantic," he defends, tipping towards her until their faces are close again. Just a few seconds after they start kissing, they tumble back onto the blanket.

"You know this isn't normal, right?" She checks again between kisses.

"Normal's boring," he answers through a smile, folding their hands into each other's as they continue making out.

"And it's not gonna be easy," she adds, still trying to maintain some degree of practicality.

"Easy's boring, too."

"And you know we're insane?"

"I wouldn't have it any other way," he replies, pulling her into his chest to cuddle as they lie stiller on the blanket.

"Okay then," she says, resting her ring-clad hand on his chest. "I'd say this has been a pretty successful Valentine's Day. Ten points for Beck and Jade."

He laughs and kisses her forehead. "Happy Valentine's Day, Babe."

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**This is probably ooc but I just don't care. Please don't fave without reviewing xox**


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